Whose school choice?
TLDR: As school choice options, and especially private options, continue to expand, fulfilling the promise of “choice for all” will require a deliberate focus on equity.
National School Choice week just wrapped up, and there has been no shortage of recent articles, blog posts, and research updates on the topic. School choice is an especially salient issue right now as states continue to expand both public (e.g., charter schools and inter- and intradistrict choice) and especially private (e.g., vouchers and education savings accounts) school choice options.
Does school choice “work”?
Echoing a frequent flashpoint in the national conversation about school choice, I’m often asked whether school choice programs “work.” This is a complex question because, according to arguments made by choice advocates, choice “works” through different mechanisms. In a nutshell, the argument is that choice will allow students to attend schools that better meet their needs and interests, in turn signaling to the schools they depart the need to do better, and ultimately driving competition and improving student outcomes across all types of schools, including traditional public schools. In other words, even agreeing on what it means for school choice programs to work is no easy task.
Who gets to choose?
But lately I’m thinking more about a different question: who gets to choose? A recent study from the Texas Education Leadership Lab documents a rise in charter enrollment of 313% between 2009 and 2005, a period during which traditional public school enrollment rose by just 9%. Yet charter schools in Texas continue to enroll fewer students with disabilities, while resource-intensive special education service responsibilities are increasingly concentrated in traditional public schools as their enrollment and revenue decline. Meanwhile, private school voucher programs nationally seem to mostly benefit already advantaged students, who are mostly white and wealthy.
There are a host of reasons for uneven access to school choice. One oft-cited reason has to do with families’ access to comparable information about different options. Public schools, including charter schools, regularly and systematically report information required under state accountability systems, including statewide assessment scores. While not perfect, these data provide families with a way to compare options and help guide their decisions. But as more public dollars are channeled toward private schools in a growing number of states, an information gap is emerging since private schools are not required to report these data.
Attending to equity in school choice policy
Expanding access to information is certainly important, but is nonetheless insufficient if – as choice advocates frequently claim – a primary benefit of school choice is greater access to equitable educational options for underserved families. Choice policies are too often implemented in ways that exacerbate inequity for families most in need of options. For instance, research has repeatedly demonstrated that parents’ school preferences for their children are primarily driven by advice and experiences gleaned from their social connections rather than by their fixed values or educational priorities. And because social networks tend to be segregated along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines, better information sources or urging parents to do more legwork in researching school options is unlikely to reduce segregated choice patterns.
School choice is not inherently beneficial. The beneficiaries depend on who has access to meaningful choices, and on the extent to which choice systems are built to also achieve public benefits, such as equity and integration. Worth remembering is that, on both fronts, it matters who gets to choose.